Environmental Determinants of Disease – EDD

Topics

• Environmental toxicants, toxins, and emerging pollutants.
• Development of animal and human tissue/organoid model systems for the purpose of studying environmental toxicant-induced systemic effects.
• Modifiers of toxic/toxicant exposures and outcomes such as the identification of modifiable risk factors (e.g., diet or lifestyle) or the study of molecular mechanisms that affect the outcome of exposures (e.g., genes that affect the phenotypic and/or molecular expression of other genes).
• Identification and validation of biomarkers of environmental toxicant-induced injury in animals and humans.
• Exposure biology and the use of transitional epidemiology studies to develop and use biomarkers of exposure, susceptibility, and effect.
• Molecular basis for susceptibility to environmental and pharmacological induced toxicity and disease (e.g., pharmacogenomics and toxicogenomics) including alterations in microbiota.
• Gene-environment interactions including the molecular basis for the impact of an environmental exposure on disease risk on individuals or populations with different genotypes.
• Mechanisms whereby environmental toxicant exposures contribute to disease pathogenesis (e.g., carcinogenesis) in model systems and humans, resulting in toxicological, pharmacological, and epigenetic manifestations.
• Analysis of the exposome and how contact with environmental factors effects the human body to determine the types, levels, and combinations of exposures people experience and how those exposures affect human health and disease across the lifespan.

Shared Interests and Overlaps

There are shared interests in the disposition and/or metabolism of xenobiotics with Drug and Biologic Disposition and Toxicity (DBDT). Applications that focus on environmental toxicants/toxins are reviewed in EDD. Applications that emphasize disposition (metabolism) and pharmacology of xenobiotics (not environmental toxicants) and supraphysiologic levels of nutrient and non-nutrient chemicals are reviewed in DBDT.

There are here are shared interests in the epidemiology of toxicant exposures with Social and Environmental Determinants of Health (SEDH).  Applications that focus on the pharmacological and toxicological mechanisms by which environmental toxicant exposures affect human disease pathogenesis, including studies employing animal models, are reviewed in EDD. Applications that focus on characterizing the relationship between environmental exposures and human health outcomes at the population level are reviewed in SEDH.

There are shared interests in the effects of toxicants (e.g., organophosphates, heavy metals) that effect the nervous system with Neurotoxicology and Alcohol (NAL). Applications that focus on the effects of environmental toxicants outside the central nervous system are reviewed in EDD. Applications that emphasize neurotoxicology in model systems or that address the effects of environmental toxicants or alcohol on the central nervous system in animal models and humans are reviewed in NAL.

There are shared interests in endocrine disruptors with Cellular, Molecular and Integrative Reproduction (CMIR). Applications that emphasize the contribution of environmental toxicants to the etiology or progression of reproductive pathologies are reviewed in EDD. Applications that emphasize the use of xenobiotics/toxicants to alter molecular, cellular, genomic, endocrine, and physiological aspects of reproductive biology in both mammalian and model organism systems are reviewed in CMIR.

There are shared interests with Pulmonary Injury, Repair, and Remodeling (PIRR). Applications that address adverse effects of environmental or other toxicants on the lung in the context of lung development, lung injury/repair, emphysema, and interstitial lung diseases such as sarcoidosis and asbestosis may be reviewed in PIRR. Applications that emphasize lung toxicology (such as particulate AI pollutants, tobacco, cannabis, and/or vaping) may be reviewed in EDD.